I am happy to have finally found the address for the Ka-Long Restaurant after many unsuccessful searches. This restaurant is an old-school Thai restaurant set on the busy Chao Praya River and there’s no mistaking its authenticity. The spices are strong like Thai food should be: The food here is prepared by locals, for locals: You sweat not only from the outdoor seating but also from liberal sprinkling of hot peppers.
Beef larb, shrimp potak soup, crab fried rice, fried fish mien cum (an appetizer dish where the ingredients are diced and you wrap the fish, lime - with skin, ginger, and onion in a betel leaf), chicken satay with peanut sauce (a temporary respite from the spiciness), fried local fish, tofu and shrimp pad thai, mangos and sticky rice: These were the flavors of my childhood presented exactly how I remembered. (Although I am less likely to avoid the dishes I ignored in my prepubescent years, my pallet having aged considerably like good wine.)
This is a place foodies dream about, a restaurant that is relatively untouched by time and the internet: It sits at the end of a narrow alleyway flanked by traditional Thai houses covered with rusty metal roofs hidden, like a unfound treasure. The reviews on the food sites say to keep this place a secret and I’d like to honor their requests so I trust this will be between just you and me okay?
2 Si Ayutthaya Rd, Dusit, Bangkok 10300, Thailand ‎